A Tap on the Shoulder

What memories does summer renew for you? As the warm air finally arrives and we move into June, my mind carries me back to summer church trips to various places around our country and sometimes the world. As I type this, I realize I have been going on summer church trips for over 40 years. Wow! What do you remember about your church and the summer? Have you been on any meaningful trips with your church?

One summer trip stands out to me because it changed my life. It was where I felt my calling to ministry. The summer before my ninth-grade year, I went with my church youth group on a mission trip to Chicago. We worked with a local church and offered backyard Bible clubs to children in the community. The church, located in the inner city of Chicago, was a lot different than the church where I grew up. It was in an aging building located in a neighborhood much different than mine. It was made up of people from all over the world, worshipping together with an energy I had never witnessed before. My young mind was curious about the inconsistencies between my expectations and the realities of what I witnessed. The neighborhood was poor, full of all kinds of different people, and known to be dangerous. The church was old, outdated, and broke. Yet, there was life in their worship. It was full of hope, healing, and belonging.

One evening, we shared another worship service with the church. At the end of the service, something was stirring within me. Everything I was seeing, feeling, and wondering welled up in emotions that broke free. I could not stop crying. I even started to hyperventilate. As I sat on the front pew to gather myself, a person from their church tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Someone’s trying to tell you something.” I can hear the voice even now as a reminder that the calling remains. My calling did not become clear and definable in that moment, but over the weeks, months, and years, I came to understand that moment as God calling me to join God in the work of hope, healing, and belonging—a calling not to a position, but to live out the gospel as I saw it lived out in the little old church in the heart of the inner city of Chicago. To live out of, and into, the hope, healing, and belonging the gospel of Jesus the Christ brings.

I know that being the church is hard right now, but that summer trip to Chicago long ago reminds me that we have all we ever need to face the challenges of this day. I know it’s hard, but no matter the circumstances we face or how troubling the world around us feels, we do not have to operate out of an attitude of worry nor despair. Deep down into who we are and what we believe is a plethora of all we really need—things far more wonderful and far more powerful than the worries of this world. We, the church, bear the Good News of Jesus the Christ, who always brings hope, is always healing, and always breaks down barriers to belonging. When we hold on to hope, make room for healing, and work toward belonging, an overwhelming sense of resilience and worship will break forth in ways we never imagined. The church is not empty, not irrelevant, not doomed. The church is full. Full of hope, full of healing, and full of the Spirit, creating new ways for all people to belong. As you venture out this summer, pay attention! You might just get a tap on the shoulder too.